Oops, I did it Again

Despite my best intentions, I didn’t get around to taking shots of my painted closet today! Tomorrow instead!

I was tired tonight, but I have big plans for cleaning the house this week after work because I have a friend visiting this weekend. After using my panini maker for the first time (yum – cheese and ham, toasted, FTW), I futzed around in the kitchen for a bit, wiping counters and straightening up. I managed to motivate myself enough to clean out the fridge and freezer, and I’m embarrassed to say there was more than one expired item in there.

But that was some positive de-cluttering for the night, which made me realize that I can incorporate it into my nightly routine (when I stick to it, which hasn’t been very much lately!).  The kitchen is now spotless (minus the floor, but with the dogs, I like to wait as long as possible to get that clean!). I also dusted the rest of the first floor, cleaning up spots of Barney-drool as I went – gross, but a fact of life with some bassets.

I also used my new vacuum, with a fancy pet attachment that it came with, to clean the couch. I’d left the cover off all week, so it had gotten a bit of hair on it, and the friend who’s visiting is unfortunately allergic to dogs.  She takes some allergy meds when she comes, but this will be her first visit with two dogs, so I’m trying to get it as clean as I can.  So I got as much hair as I could see off the couch and put the clean slip cover back on – I also plan to wash it again towards the end of the week.

I vacuumed the two chairs in the room – the pups never used to sit on them, but Barney has taken to sitting in the one in the corner, because it gives him a different vantage point of the cul-de-sac for his “patrolling.” You haven’t lived until you’ve watched a basset hound growl ferociously…while he lays his head on the arm of the chair. It’s obviously very intimidating…um, not so much.

At any rate, I also did another de-cluttering job that I’ve been putting off – going through the boys’ toys.  It’s a little ridiculous how many toys they have, and it’s been a little while since I’ve washed them and thrown out the ones that Barney has ripped open.  So I did that tonight, which should also cut down a bit on the doggy-ness of the house. Unfortunately, Ollie has also managed to destroy the toy basket, one of my favorite baskets in the house, by chewing a handle off, and part of the side, so I’ll have to pick up a new one…probably a smaller one, to keep me from spoiling the pups too much!

I was also excited to hang up a map of Rome that I found – I had framed it a while ago, and then put it up in the attic because I didn’t have anywhere to hang it.  I decided a few months ago to hang postcards or prints from my travels on the wall leading up the stairs, after I found a beautiful print that looks like a pencil drawing of the Eiffel Tower, while I was in Charles de Gaulle airport. Since then, I’ve added three cards I picked up in San Francisco (also in the airport), a Christmas card one of our clients sent us for Christmas from Prague, and now the map of Rome, which we actually used while we were there – my dad’s notes are even on it. Since Rome is one of my favorite cities, it will be nice to see that every time I come up or go down the stairs. I’ll have to post a photo of that tomorrow too.

All in all, a rather productive night, surprisingly.  This is a rather mundane post, I know, but I promised to write daily, and there are a lot of mundane days for us handy homeowners! But despite it being mundane, I must say it’s nice to sit down on the couch with the washing machine going, the dishwasher loaded, and everything clean and straightened.